New Indiana education dashboard offers look at student performance

Johnson County parents, education professionals and students can now see information about their schools with a new dashboard.

The Indiana Department of Education published its Indiana Graduates Prepared to Succeed dashboard, or Indiana GPS, in December. The dashboard has a myriad of features comparing individual schools and school districts to the state average for 20 indicators. Some of those indicators include: graduation pathways completion rate, third-grade literacy, SAT performance and advanced coursework prior to ninth grade, among other categories, according to the dashboard website.

The dashboard can be found at indianagps.doe.in.gov/.

The dashboard is still developing. Student achievement statistics for students in pre-K through second grade, such as kindergarten readiness and pre-K through second-grade literacy, still haven’t been added. Those are listed as “coming soon” on the website.

With no statewide accountability exam in those grades, it takes longer for that data to be compiled in an easy-to-understand way, said Ron Sandlin, the IDOE’s senior director of school performance and transformation.

Indiana GPS centers around five characteristics regarding student success: academic mastery, career and postsecondary readiness, credentials and experiences, communication and collaboration, work ethic and civic, financial and digital literacy. State education leaders created Indiana GPS after lawmakers passed House Enrolled Act 1514 in 2021, directing the creation of a school performance dashboard.

The database is a follow up to the INview dashboard, which similarly compares school and school district data to the state average. INview has information for each school and district spread on a plethora of different pages instead of a single page like Indiana GPS does. While INview is an important source of education data, the GPS dashboard is more easily digestible, Sandlin said.

Center Grove

The Center Grove Community School Corporation outperformed the state average in most categories, and students did especially well in the graduation pathways completion category, with 95.6% of 12th graders fulfilling those requirements compared to the state average of 86.4%, according to the dashboard.

Graduation pathways courses at Center Grove High School include accounting, marketing, sales, business administration, information technology, education careers, interior design and others. Those classes have helped provide a path to graduation for students who might not meet other requirements, such as a high SAT score, said Nora Hoover, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning at Center Grove schools.

“Pathways have value and we build those out for more opportunities,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s a safety net built in.”

Center Grove did not meet the sustained employment state average of 22.5%, with 14.5% of high school graduates meeting the criteria. In order for students to be counted, they must not be enrolled in college and must have employment in Indiana during the reporting year, according to information from the department of education. This category is partially out of educators’ control because it’s based on what happens after a student graduates, said Jeffry Henderson, Center Grove High School’s principal.

“We have to wrap our head around how to interpret and understand that, and whether the data is useful for us to determine programmatic changes we’ll need to make, but also if it’s a negative or positive reflection of what we’re doing,” he said.

Clark-Pleasant

The Clark-Pleasant School Community School Corporation also performed best in the graduation pathways completion indicator, with 92.3% of Whiteland Community High School seniors meeting those requirements. Students are able to not only take courses for pathways in house, such as band, choir and visual arts, but at Central Nine Career Center, where they can take classes in construction, welding, dental assisting and automotive work, among other areas, said Cassandra Shipp, assistant superintendent at Clark-Pleasant schools.

The school district has room for improvement when it comes to 21st Century Scholars enrollment, with 15.9% of eligible eighth graders enrolled compared to the state average of 32.6%, according to the dashboard. The 21st Century Scholars program pays for up to four years of undergraduate tuition for low-income Hoosier students, provided they meet academic benchmarks and attend college in Indiana.

“It’s about talking to our parents and helping them understand (the application) needs to be completed in middle school and they need to be enrolled before high school,” Shipp said. “Some parents may not understand how to fill it out, so we need to provide extra support for parents.”

Franklin

Diploma strength was the highest scoring indicator at Franklin Community School Corporation. There, 92.9% of high school seniors earned diplomas above a general designation, compared to the statewide average of 90.1%. School leaders have done well in getting eighth-grade students opportunities to take high school classes. When those students reach 12th grade, they have time to strive for a degree beyond the standard diploma, such as an honors diploma, said David Clendening, superintendent of Franklin schools.

Like Clark-Pleasant, Franklin schools fell behind the state in 21st Century Scholars enrollment, with 10.7% of eligible eighth graders enrolled, according to the dashboard. School officials are considering having information sessions during back-to-school events or before school concerts to get the information about the program to reach as many parents as possible, he said.

Edinburgh

At Edinburgh Community High School, 90.3% of graduates were employed or enrolled in college one year after their expected graduation date, while the state average is 84.9%. There is room for improvement in sixth-grade math, with 16.1% of students meeting individual growth targets on the ILEARN exam, compared to the state average of 34.1%.

Edinburgh school offiicals did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

Indian Creek

Indian Creek Elementary School outperformed all other Johnson County school districts in third-grade literacy, with 93.2% of students showing proficiency on the IREAD-3 exam. The state average is 81.6%, according to the dashboard.

Students do well on the exam because they are given extra support, said Tim Edsell, superintendent for Indian Creek schools.

“We’ve historically done very well in preparing students to do well on that,” he said. “Even students who don’t pass the first time in the spring are immediately put into a comprehensive summer program and then they pass.”

The school district has room for improvement with SAT performance, with 28.6% of students meeting standards, slightly less than the statewide average of 28.8%, according to the dashboard.

“A way to improve that is to add dual credit and (advanced placement) courses so students can have those high-ability opportunities to excel and hopefully acquire knowledge for the SAT test,” Edsell said. “It’s continual analysis, so when these reports are updated we see how it aligns with school improvement plans and strategies and what we need to tweak and adjust.”

The database as a whole can help school leaders determine what their districts’ strengths and weaknesses are, Edsell said.

“This is a better snapshot of all the different data we’re able to study besides what we’ve had over the last five to 10 years, which is a single letter grade of A to F,” he said. “There’s more to what our students experience than just the standardized SAT, ILEARN and ACT scores.”

Greenwood

Greenwood Community School Corporation performed best in diploma strength, with 90.3% of high school seniors earning diplomas above a general designation. While high school students are outperforming base requirements, 15.4% of students were taking high school-level coursework prior to ninth grade, which is less than half the statewide average of 38.2%, according to the dashboard.

The figure isn’t something school leaders are extremely concerned about, as they have to make sure middle school students are prepared if they are to take those classes, such as biology or geometry, said Lisa Laug, guidance department and college and career director.

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s a decision each corporation has to make for themselves,” she said. “Popular ones could be a health course of biology or preparing for college and career, but logistically do you think those classes are appropriate for them at that level?”